


Bright, Bright, Bright

by bulllshitzarry



Series: Death and the Strawberry [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Fluff, IchiRuki Month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 10:43:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20406418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bulllshitzarry/pseuds/bulllshitzarry
Summary: Once...Twice…And a soft pitter-patter of rain in his soul, began again.





	Bright, Bright, Bright

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Language of flowers -  
* Forget-me-not : don't forget me; memories, sincere love  
* Red&white Roses: Unity together, eternal  
* Saffron: Light 
> 
> 2\. This is my first fic guys! So, please let me know of any mistakes. Thank you <3

The broken pieces of her past: all dusted with an orange hue – the pain, sorrow, trials and body aches all lay before her violet irises. She retreated to reality as the dusting of orange turned into a bright, bright, bright frame for her favourite picture.

Gold tainted orbs sparkled with tragedy, a minute widening as eyelashes fluttered open. A full-body shock ricochets through her own inner world…

_Sodu no Shirayake despairingly looking at the snowstorm to come…_

He was never one to let her know. Social cues and reactions normally disguised behind anger and nonchalance. The small action, the inherent fear and affliction seeping through vacuum packed boxes. The widened gaze.

He looked at her fading from the tips of her toes to her eyes, as if trying to memorize her form and that’s when she saw… she doesn’t think he wanted her to. In response, a sound reverberated through her own world, lightning cracked

_Once..._

_Twice…_

And the soft pitter-patter of rain began again.

Her mouth gasped of its own violition, willing the words to come out. Trying to force, pull and push the life she had imagined, through the downpour, into the Space between them. But, there was only so much time and so many touches they were permitted in this destiny. A forbidden desperation that would fade with her existence.

“You won’t be able to see me, but I will be able to see you” rang like an alarm through her_ zanpakto _. Her own words cracking a whip at her- a final blow. Her strength shattered as she folded in on herself in front of her home, as if bowing in thanks. The unfocused eyes of her _bright, bright, bright _tomorrow, blowing out the last candle of her determination.

She felt her being disintegrate as the gold disappeared from his eyes. She lost herself and her _bright, bright, bright_ faded to black. 

He couldn’t feel her anymore, his reiatsu completely vanished, his body stumbled a step back. Looking up at the sky he fell to his knees, hard enough to create micro-fractures in the joints. Staring at the place where his entire destiny had been forced to drown out of sight.

His voice whispered, grimy and so soft “raining again…” she couldn’t hear the whole sentence, but she heard "rain" and forced tears back into her eyes. He sat like that for what felt like seconds, but she knew it has been much longer by how dark it was suddenly. She looked away from him for the first time as the moon white-washed her vision.

He quietly stood up, the once-upon-a-time beast, now calm and composed. He waved goodbye to their friends and made his way to their home. Yes, it had been hers too, she accepted.

She shunpo’d to the roof and peered through his bedroom window. He stared at the pole where she had stabbed him, rooted to the spot as his eyes got stuck. The pole she had stood on top of when she first arrived in Kurakara Town.

He opened the window as if expecting her to come and turned around. Bursting into scathing laughter; a second later realisation dawning that she wouldn’t come again. He thought maybe, she wouldn’t have left yet… no he knew. She wouldn’t leave without making sure he slept.

He looked back at the window and she worried, for god knows what reason... but he came really close. She thought of moving further away but stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of colour. He had seemingly magicked a bunch of ugly flowers from inside his jacket pocket. He stared at them as if they had violated him in some way and she sniggered at the oddball. He sighed and placed them just at the rim of the window. So close to her hand, like he knew she was there. Maybe he did.

Beaming forget-me-knots, red-white shaded roses and saffron flowers formed the odd bunch of wildflowers tied together with a messily torn piece of cloth. She recognized it; a piece torn from his school shirt. He had explained the language of flowers to her once, when she had stolen a copy of some old literature from him and a whimper left her lips in understanding.

She finally saw in his broken gaze as he looked at the flowers and then full moon - what had truly been lost, the cost of this war was too large a burden.

The cost for him wasn’t purpose or power or excitement – it was her. She felts her pools overflow and a thunderstorm shake her core. The only cost she could derive from his unspoken gift – was simply her. He crumbled like a house of cards while staring at the pure white moon and a single dewdrop fell from his eyes, his face still stoic. He was mourning, grieving like a man at his wife’s grave. The sorrow weighing down a young soul to the depths of hell.

Hueco Mundo would have been a bed of roses compared to the devastation in the inner world of Ichigo Kurosaki today.

_Sode no Shirayuki_ fluttered as if waiting to stab him again, to somehow stop what would follow Ichigo’s devastation: the slow decay of her own master. Rukia Kuchiki braved the tremble and depth of her need. She waited with bated breath and tears falling from her own heart, for him to lie down and look away from the moon.

He had no sleep that night, lying awake staring at the empty closet. Looking at the dust in his bedroom dancing in the light from his window. He reluctantly got up a few hours later to put the silly flowers away. In the place where his saviour use to sleep.

_But the bunch was gone, too heavy to be carried away by the wind… _

And he finally let despair fill his bones as he howled her name in the twilight... Staring at the sun and moon, hating his fate and hating how the light seemed the most _bright, bright, bright_, when the celestial bodies were in the sky together. His mask broken, his burden toI heavy, he screeched for her internally. He finally realized that though he had won all his battles and saved everyone, he had lost the war. He couldn’t protect the one thing _Zangetsu_had tried to teach him to in his first lesson– himself.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Language of flowers -  
* Forget-me-not : don't forget me; memories, sincere love  
* Red&white Roses: Unity together, eternal  
* Saffron: Light


End file.
